David Bowie's legacy will be honored with shows at Carnegie Hall and Radio City.ZumaPress.com

Throughout his 50-year career, David Bowie served as an inspiration to countless musicians. And as big a star as he was, he was never reluctant to admit his own influences — and toss some love to his fellow musicians.

Take the Pixies, for example: In a 2002 documentary, “Gouge,” about the band, Bowie said, “I found it just about the most compelling music, outside of Sonic Youth, in the entire 1980s.” He even went as far as covering their song “Cactus” on his 2002 album “Heathen,” and performed it almost every night on the following A Reality Tour — which turned out to be his last.

Now the Pixies are returning the favor. The band is one of some 20 acts who will pay tribute to the Thin White Duke on Thursday night at Carnegie Hall, and will do so again Friday night at Radio City Music Hall — both venues just a few subway stops uptown from the Soho apartment Bowie shared with his wife, Iman.

Former REM frontman Stipe offered a melancholic, piano-based rendition of Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World” Tuesday on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.” Stipe has rarely given interviews or made statements since REM split in 2011, but posted a touching Facebook post in January saying that “one of our main planetary anchors has lost it’s [sic] orbit.”

Blondie’s Debbie Harry is also playing, to honor the man who gave her some vital showbiz tips when she was just starting out. “[Bowie] gave me advice on working the stage,” she told Esquire in 2014, recalling when Blondie opened for Iggy Pop in 1977, and Bowie was playing keyboards in Pop’s band. “Inevitably, you have to take the advice. If he’d said, ‘Get out of town,’ I probably would have done that too.”

Debbie Harry with Bowie, in 2003.Reuters

Fellow New Yorker Cyndi Lauper has hinted she may play 1972’s “Suffragete City.” “I feel like in this day and age, it’s a good thing to sing,” she told spin.com.

The memorial originally started life as a one-night tribute.

Michael Dorf, the entrepreneur and City Winery owner who’s honored musicians such as REM, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and others since 2006, announced the concert date just hours before Bowie’s death became public on Jan. 11.

The profits from the shows (and a paid live stream of Friday’s show being offered via Skype) will go to music education programs across the country. “Music programs — especially in public schools — are always the first thing to get cut when there are budget problems,” Dorf tells The Post.

“I feel a sense of responsibility in putting this together,” he adds. “Even though this is not an official memorial concert, I think the artists and the thousands of people in the audience are coming to pay their final public respects to someone who has deeply affected their lives.”